Center: ‘They do it because they want to help kids’
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley for a reversal of the closure decision.
However, they said now they hope only that the church will delay the closing to give parents more time to make other arrangements for their children.
McMahon said families, including hers, put their children’s names on waiting lists and waited for months and sometimes years to enroll their children in the center.
She said the center appealed to many Norman area residents because of its Catholic affiliation or, for non-Catholics, a Christian identity.
She said she was heartened by the way parents have joined to find solutions to the looming closure.
“One of the silver linings is to watch a group of parents come together,” McMahon said. Cook agreed. She said the closure of the school was the worst part of the recent conversation with Boeckman, but the priest’s decision to give the parents only a month’s notice hurt many people.
McMahon said she and her husband already have enrolled their child in another center. However, Cook said there are many other parents who are now asking the church for more time, particularly enough time to allow them to move forward with a plan to open another child development center at a new location.
“Thirty days is an eviction notice for people who haven’t paid for their homes, for people who haven’t paid their bills. It’s not the way a Catholic or Christian organization should treat families and children so I think in the short term, what I would like to see happen is for St. Joseph’s, for Father Boeckman, for the administration there, to hear some reason, have some sympathy and delay the closure of the school,” Cook said.
“At this point I think many people have given up that we can save the school, but you know what? It doesn’t mean we have to lose our child care. It doesn’t mean we have to lose our mission. It doesn’t mean we have to lose our heart. We can continue all those things someplace else.”
Patrick Schrank, administrative assistant at the center, said staff members were told of the imminent closure Sept. 12, a few hours before the parents.
He said many staff members, like the parents, were dismayed to learn that the center was closing its doors.
“They don’t do it because they’re trying to get rich. They do it because they want to help kids,” Schrank said. “It’s really a shame it has to close.”
He said he and others affected by the planned closure were interested in finding out how the center ended up in dire straits. Schrank said while an online petition was circulated to get the church to reverse its decision, a second petition was circulated after each Sunday Mass outside St. Joseph’s and St. Thomas More University Parish and Student Center.
“I think we’ve not really been given any answers. So many families have said they will have fundraisers, pay more tuition — all these things — to raise money, but it has been turned away.”
Like Cook, he said he is hopeful that the proposed plan for a new child development center to be opened elsewhere will keep the St. Joseph’s center “family” together.
“St. Joseph’s is really just a building. It’s more about the community. The building isn’t teaching the kids. The building isn’t allowing them to grow spiritually. It’s really about the people,” Schrank said.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Jim Goins, pastor of St. Thomas More University Parish and Student Center, said he became aware of the center’s upcoming closure because of the families in his parish who are affected. His church, which is on the University of Oklahoma campus, includes many young families, the priest said.
“The St. Thomas More parish is reaching out to our parents who are involved in the school closing and doing everything we can to help them,” Goins said Friday.
“We acknowledge that it has been painful for all parties involved. We’re hoping and praying for reconciliation.
Archbishop Coakley responded via email to many of the parents who asked him to keep the child development center open.
In his email, Coakley said the decision to close the center, a parish-based program, was made by Boeckman, in consultation with the St. Joseph’s parish council and finance council.
“I have no reason to call into question the judgment of these trusted parish leaders,” Coakley said in his letter.